Among the most significant changes in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle is the appointment former bureaucrat-cum-technocrat Ashwini Vaishnav as Minister with the dual charge of IT and Railways, Mansukh Mandaviya as Health Minister and former IFS officer Hardeep Singh Puri as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Vaishnav is a former IAS officer who has also worked in the corporate sector with multinational giants GE and Siemens. An M Tech from IIT Kanpur and MBA graduate from Wharton he takes over the IT Ministry at a time when the new IT rules are being implemented in the country amidst resistance from the US tech giants such as Twitter, Amazon and Facebook. The 50-year-old Rajya Sabha MP is new to politics and enters as a young face in the Cabinet because of his professional expertise.
Mandaviya has succeeded Dr Harsh Vardhan, and his elevation assumes importance at a time when the country is fighting a war against the Covid-19 pandemic. He was earlier the Minister of State for Shipping and MoS for Chemicals & Fertilisers
Hardeep Singh Puri has been promoted to Cabinet rank in addition to the civil aviation ministry has got charge of the crucial petroleum ministry. His IFS background is expected to come handy as oil imports from Iran are expected to open up and India is diversifying its sources of oil supply outside the Gulf countries.
Power Minister RK Singh who also handles the ministry of renewable energy has been promoted to full Cabinet rank as the former bureaucrat-turned-politician has been ably handling his portfolios. The reshuffle has taken place after a detailed performance evaluation of the ministers by the Prime Minister which has also led tp Kiren Rijiju being promoted from MoS to a Cabinet minister.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Congress early last year, was inducted to the Council of ministers and given charge of the crucial civil aviation ministry, a charge that was once held by his father Madhavrao Scindia in a Congress government.
There are 14 ministers below the age of 50. The council of ministers will also have a mix of experienced professionals with 13 lawyers, six doctors, five engineers, seven civil servants, seven with research degrees and three with degrees in business.
There will be 11 women ministers from across nine states. To ensure adequate regional representation there will be four ministers from the five North-east states.
Of the 43 ministers who took oath of office on Wednesday, 36 are new entrants to the council of ministers and seven have been elevated to the Cabinet rank.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers now has 78 members. Here’s a list of the Cabinet ministers and ministers of state with independent charge.
CABINET MINISTERS
1.Narendra Modi: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, All important policy issues; and, All other portfolios not allocated to any Minister
2. Rajnath Singh: Defence Minister
3. Amit Shah: Home Minister, Cooperation Minister
4. Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Minister
5. Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister, Corporate Affairs Minister
6. Narendra Singh Tomar: Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister
7. S Jaishankar: External Affairs Minister
8. Arjun Munda: Tribal Affairs Minister
9. Smriti Irani: Women and Child Welfare Minister
10. Piyush Goyal: Commerce & Industry Minister, Consumer Affairs Minister, Food & Public Distribution Minister, Textiles Minister
11. Dharmendra Pradhan: Education Minister, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister
12. Pralhad Joshi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Coal Minister, Mines Minister
13. Narayan Rane: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister
14. Sarbananda Sonowal: Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, AYUSH Minister
15. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs Minister
16. Dr Virendra Kumar: Social Justice and Empowerment Minister
17. Giriraj Singh: Rural Development Minister, Panchayati Raj Minister
18. Jyotiraditya Scindia: Civil Aviation Minister
19. Ramchandra Prasad Singh: Steel Minister
20. Ashwini Vaishnaw: Railways Minister, Communication Minister, Electronics & IT Minister
21. Pashu Pati Kumar Paras: Food Processing Industries Minister
22. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Jal Shakti Minister
23. Kiren Rijiju: Law & Justice Minister
24. Raj Kumar Singh: Power Minister, New & Renewable Energy Minister
25. Hardeep Singh Puri: Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister, Housing & Urban Affairs Minister
26. Mansukh Mandaviya: Health and Family Welfare Minister, Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister
27. Bhupender Yadav: Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister, Labour & Employment Minister
28. Mahendra Nath Pandey: Heavy Industries Minister
29. Parshottam Rupala: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister
30. G Kishan Reddy: Culture Minister, Tourism Minister, Minister for Development of Northeast
31. Anurag Thakur: Information & Broadcasting Minister, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister
MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE
32. Rao Inderjit Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation, Planning, Corporate Affairs
33. Jitendra Singh: Science & Technology; Earth Sciences; Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space
